Young Alec, a chip off the old block, played footie for Corinthian Casuals. But gradually it became clear that he would stand a better chance as a professional cricketer His dad, the Surrey manager, offered him a contract. "He paid me next to nothing and stopped my pocket money at the same time," Stewart recalls, with a chuckle. He remains extremely close to the old man, his greatest fan but still his fiercest critic.In 1981 Stewart faced his first ball in county cricket from none other than David Graveney - "he got me out in both innings and still won't let me forget it". His first ball in Test cricket, in 1989, was delivered by Patrick Patterson, and he smacked it for four. Who, I wonder, are the best bowlers he has faced?"Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were brilliant together.

They could bowl reverse swing at good pace and I've seen Waqar bowl balls that you just can't play Curtly Ambrose you can't score off. Allan Donald is the quickest for maintaining his pace over seven or eight overs But you have to back your ability against theirs. You want them to think `oh, no, it's Alec Stewart coming out'. If I had to name one bowler, it would be Shane Warne.I followed Gatt when Warne bowled him with that ball in 1993 A great ball. He bowled a similar one to Herschelle Gibbs in the World Cup I just about survived the rest of the over. We knew the wicket was turning, but ...."Stewart shakes his head in awe. Of the best bowlers he has kept wicket to, he praises Steve Watkin and Alan Mullally for their ability to make the ball duck and dive, even after it has passed the bat, and Darren Gough and Angus Fraser for general excellence.

"In my opinion, if Fraser hadn't had that hip injury, he would have ended up as England's leading wicket- taker," he says.As for his Surrey team-mate Alex Tudor, Stewart declares himself a big fan "I've known him since he was 15 He's got pace and height and now he needs consistency. As for his batting, he's only ever played as well in his back garden as he did at Edgbaston Realistically, he's a Test No 8 He might just end up as a No 7. But people are giving it `the new Botham' and all that, and it's unfair to Tewds. There'll never be another Botham."Stewart is well placed to make such judgments. He is 36 now, yet a formidably fit 36, who hopes to go on playing for England perhaps until he has acquired 100 Test caps. He already has 89, and at Lord's moved into the select band of England batsmen with 6,000 runs or more. More than 250 of those were scored in a single Test, against the West Indies in Barbados in 1994, when he made centuries in both innings In the previous Test, England had been bowled out for 46 So let us not despair The good times are clearly just around the corner..

There is something discomfiting about the fact that we now make the Mini almost exclusively for Japan. It's like discovering that London Bridge is actually in an American desert, or that the Royal Family are of German descent. Surely the Mini, like ice-cream vans and traffic cones, is a part of the British roadscape fabric? Isn't it? Well, not now. These days, nine cars are assembled each working hour at Rover's ageing Birmingham factory - and almost every one of them is then boarded on to a cargo boat bound for Tokyo, where the Mini continues to be the best-selling British car. As the Mini approaches its 40th birthday, on 26 August, it is sad to relate that it is this trade alone that keeps the Longbridge production line rolling. "The fact is that, for Japanese people who love cars, owning a Mini is the fulfilment of a dream," says David Blume, who as the president of Rover Japan is the man largely responsible for the car's survival.